Helping newborns through the web

ACCORDING to a new study released in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, there was a large cost saving when low-risk newborn infants were tracked through a website instead of going through 'usual care', which included a return visit to the hospital within 48 hours of discharge.

The research, performed in Spain, looked at a group of infants who were tracked through a website with three components:

A free-access area with information about baby care and breastfeeding.

A parents’ area where, after authentication, they were asked to submit a questionnaire twice a week about the baby’s condition. Parents were able to communicate with nurses with specific questions via email.

An area where doctors and nurses could see parents’ answers to the questionnaires and respond directly to the parents.

Babies selected in the study met one of several criteria, including:

Born between 35 and 37 weeks

Weighing from just under 5 pounds to just under 7 pounds

Firstborn and breastfed only

Parents who lived more than 40 kilometres from the hospital.

After one month, the study says, 94 percent of the patients who received the Internet-based follow-up did not have to go through additional emergency department visits. This is 10 percentage points higher then the patients in the usual-care controlled group.

Emergency visits and costs both decreased by using telemedicine. The hospital-based follow-up was roughly $243 compared to just $115 for using the Internet-based follow-up.